Triceratops as prey

[Simon]

Here are screen grabs where Bakker (the hand in the green shirt) is talking about the arms of this Nanotyrannus.  Look at the size of the arms and claws - then look at the size of the head in the last photo.








 
The last photo shows the underside of the lower jaw, just to give you a sense of size.  The arms of this tyrannosaurid are truly enormous vis-a-vis the body size - and do you see how long the fingers are, not to mention the claws?

No way is this a juvenile TRex.  No way.

[Simon]

A couple more pics showing the head and the entire arm with Bakker for scale:

[Sharptooth]

X Gwangi:

thanks for the answer! 
I'm still on the fence regarding the "different niches" stuff, though; i'm more inclined to think young Rexes lived for some time with their parents even if they ate differently (see the Albertosaur's bonebed, the juveniles found with Sue and, of course, Yutyrannus)... Just speculation, mind you, it could be either way 


X Simon:

yep, that (almost) definitely does NOT look like a T.rex... Maybe Nano-T used his arms better than his gigantic cousin?

[Simon]

Living a "Raptorial Lifestyle", Nanotyrannus would have used its arms the same way, no doubt ... except it would have been Utahraptor-sized, or a bit larger .... what is real interesting is the possibility that the animal pictured took down a triceratops-sized ceratopsian, and both died in the struggle (you will note that its skull is broken in  several places, as if it got kicked in the head.)  The adjacent ceratopsian has Nano teeth imbedded in its bones, suggesting that they indeed may have fought and died together ....

You know, I just Googled pics for Nanotyrannus and noticed that all of the drawings and skeletons that came up had arms that appear much smaller than the Dueling Dinos specimen.  Looking at some of them, I have no problem believing that they might be juvenile TRexes - but the Dueling Dinos critter is definitely different in that regard - there is no way its a juvi TRex with arms that size....

[ZoPteryx]

I had forgotten about the dueling dinos specimen and a had no clue its arms were that long.  Based on those photos, its arms were already the size of an adult T. rex's!  And your right, upon rethinking it, the existence of Nanotyrannus as a seperate genus would not dissprove the niche partitioning theory, but if it is a juvenbile T. rex, then it would help it.

You know, I just Googled pics for Nanotyrannus and noticed that all of the drawings and skeletons that came up had arms that appear much smaller than the Dueling Dinos specimen.  Looking at some of them, I have no problem believing that they might be juvenile TRexes - but the Dueling Dinos critter is definitely different in that regard - there is no way its a juvi TRex with arms that size....

I noticed that too.  I guess the question now is:  Are Jane's arms really known or just reconstructed?

[Arioch]

Yes,  a 6-foot Dromaeosaur has been found in Hell Creek formation.

Does it have a name?

No, its undescribed. We only have the teeth and jaw fragments of atleast one eudromaeosaur, a saurornitholestine, "microraptorine" and some troodontid taxa from Hell Creek. The deinonychosaur fauna seems to be pretty diverse there, but sadly too fragmentary. The biggest dromaeosaur could be atleast Deinonychus sized judging by the teeth, so I´d say it would a threat to juvenile trikes